TY - JOUR
T1 - WHO approves? Relative trust, the WHO, and China’s COVID-19 vaccines
AU - Sheen, Greg Chih Hsin
AU - Tung, Hans H.
AU - Wu, Chien Huei
AU - Wu, Wen Chin
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Axel Dreher, Sara A. Newland, three anonymous reviewers, and seminar participants at the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica, National Cheng Kung University, and the 2021 APSA annual meeting for helpful comments and suggestions. The authors also gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan.
Funding Information:
The authors thank Axel Dreher, Sara A. Newland, three anonymous reviewers, and seminar participants at the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica, National Cheng Kung University, and the 2021 APSA annual meeting for helpful comments and suggestions. The authors also gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/7
Y1 - 2023/7
N2 - This paper aims to answer a general question: whether an international organization (IO) is able to shape public opinion in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the pandemic took hold in early 2020, countries across the globe have switched gear from prevention to vaccination. Most had to not only secure a sufficient supply of vaccines, but also to curb vaccine hesitancy among their populations. Can endorsement by an international organization like the World Health Organization (WHO) enhance a vaccine’s acceptability? Based on a survey experiment conducted in Taiwan, our study leverages the special relationship between China and Taiwan to show that WHO endorsement can induce acceptance of Chinese vaccines among Taiwanese people. However, the effect is found to be contextual in the sense that it only works when people’s trust in the WHO is higher than their trust in the vaccine’s country of origin. Our study not only contributes to the literature of IO legitimacy by empirically showing IOs’ causal effects on public opinion, but also sheds light on how a vaccine’s credibility can be enhanced to promote vaccination uptake.
AB - This paper aims to answer a general question: whether an international organization (IO) is able to shape public opinion in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the pandemic took hold in early 2020, countries across the globe have switched gear from prevention to vaccination. Most had to not only secure a sufficient supply of vaccines, but also to curb vaccine hesitancy among their populations. Can endorsement by an international organization like the World Health Organization (WHO) enhance a vaccine’s acceptability? Based on a survey experiment conducted in Taiwan, our study leverages the special relationship between China and Taiwan to show that WHO endorsement can induce acceptance of Chinese vaccines among Taiwanese people. However, the effect is found to be contextual in the sense that it only works when people’s trust in the WHO is higher than their trust in the vaccine’s country of origin. Our study not only contributes to the literature of IO legitimacy by empirically showing IOs’ causal effects on public opinion, but also sheds light on how a vaccine’s credibility can be enhanced to promote vaccination uptake.
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U2 - 10.1007/s11558-022-09481-1
DO - 10.1007/s11558-022-09481-1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85142304185
SN - 1559-7431
VL - 18
SP - 499
EP - 521
JO - Review of International Organizations
JF - Review of International Organizations
IS - 3
ER -